Arrived in my InBox this morning..........know nothing about this but
sharing it around, someone may know something about this and shed some info
on it.

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:08:09 +0800, "Ducky"
wrote:

Arrived in my InBox this morning..........know nothing about this but
sharing it around, someone may know something about this and shed some info
on it.

just google prestige +ship and look at the wikipedia link... (no space
after the +)

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:08:09 +0800, "Ducky"
wrote:

Arrived in my InBox this morning..........know nothing about this but
sharing it around, someone may know something about this and shed some info
on it.





Bridging the Gap: Towards Sustainable Growth



The Sinking of the “Prestige� Raises, Once Again, the Importance of
Communication


The Coast of Death is a puzzling landscape of cliffs that protect the
north of Spain. Every day, its rocks and gorges challenge the Atlantic
Ocean, anxious to invade the coasts of Galicia with an army of waves
and storms. In its waters hundreds of sunken ships lie sleeping, along
with thousands of legends about treasure that never arrived in port.
Its most recent catch is the “Prestige,� the oil tanker whose
entrails, strewn with black gold, split in two parts on November 19,
2002. The children of this catastrophe leapt into action with their
boots and nets, even with their bare hands, in aid of the sea, its
fish, its shellfish and the beaches.



The Spanish government waited a week to send a representative to
Galicia, 10 days to name someone in charge of the crisis team, and 22
days to appear before Spain’s congress to explain how it planned to
handle the crisis. (One of its decisions – to move the tanker away
from the cost – proved very controversial.) When, on December 14,
Prime Minister José Maria Aznar visited Galicia for the first time,
the black tide had already attacked Cantabria and the Basque Country
and stained the entire northern coast of Spain. By then the hurricane
of public opinion and communications media had transformed the
“Prestige� into one of the largest executive crises of Spain’s
executive branch.



The Prestige, a Greek tanker sailing under Bahama’s flag, was
transporting oil for the Swiss branch of a Russian petrol company.
While its sinking resulted in severe damage to the region’s fishing
and tourism industry, it is not yet clear who will be responsible for
the clean-up and associated costs. Experts predict that the Prestige
case will eventually be solved in an international court. Until then,
the Spanish government has taken responsibility for organizing
economic aid and other resources. The focus of the current criticism
is on the government’s handling of the catastrophe.



“The government waited too long to react,� says Antonio Cobelo,
vice-rector of academic planning at the Universidad Antonio de Nebrija
and a doctor in information sciences. “In the event of a crisis,
reaction time is very important and, in this case, it was too long. I
don’t know if it was because of a shortage of information or because
of an error in analysis. But it’s clear that, at the onset, the
government tried to get people to believe that nothing had happened.�



The government was one of the big losers in the disaster of the
Prestige. The black tide splattered its image as well as its capacity
for managing crises. “In this type of situation, the name of the game
is taking responsibility,� emphasizes Joaquin Garralda, professor at
the Instituto de Empresa. “For that reason, it’s so important to
respond in time …There are two decisive factors: reaction time and
having everything prepared.�



Along with leaks from nuclear and electric plants, disasters such as
the Prestige call for more than following manuals about behavior or
communication. That’s because this sort of event immediately captures
the attention of the media. Pictures of fishermen, using their own
hands to pick up fuel oil, made their way into homes around the world.
Thousands of volunteers traveled to Galicia in an attempt to stave off
the black menace, considered one of the largest environmental
catastrophes that Spain has ever lived through.



Take Action, Rather than Look for Guilty Parties

In less than one month, the Coast of Death passed from being anonymous
to becoming a national conflict that involved several nations. Even
the European Union found itself splattered by the tragedy. Because the
petroleum was located in waters that border Spain and Portugal, the
governments of both countries argued over who was responsible for
cleaning up the spill during the first days, before the actual
sinking. Consequently, more time was spent figuring out how not to get
involved in the crisis than in trying to find a faster solution.



“In this type of situation, you shouldn’t lose time looking for guilty
parties,� states Garralda. “You have to begin to make decisions from
the outset. In fact, one of the most common mistakes is to become
embroiled in polemics, trying to evade responsibility.� However, he
goes on to say, in the case of the Prestige, “there was an aggravating
circumstance: No single company was responsible for the ship. The flag
was from one country; the ship was of another nationality. Nor did the
country that was going to receive the petroleum consider that it was
their problem. All the accusations wound up being directed against the
captain of The Prestige, Apostolos Mangouras, who was imprisoned on
charges that he committed “environmental crime� and disobeyed Spanish
authorities.



Nevertheless, Garralda champions the idea that there is no point
losing time looking for guilty parties. To illustrate how it is more
important to take action, he recalls the case of Johnson & Johnson,
the U.S.-based health care products manufacturer. “Tylenol, J&J’s
famous drug for treating headaches, was sabotaged one night when
someone put poison in several Tylenol tablets. J&J decided to withdraw
Tylenol from the market. J&J didn’t lose any time trying to discover
which consignments of Tylenol had been poisoned and which had not. A
major part of its sound decision-making was that, for J&J, uncertainty
was not an option. From that moment on, confidence in J&J grew.
Shortly after, the company brought Tylenol back under a new label.
That permitted J&J to rebuild trust because people realized they were
dealing with a different batch of products.�



Garralda outlines five errors of communication in the case of the
Prestige. “First, the government didn’t contact the necessary channels
of communication from the moment the ship began to heel over, in order
to assure that the maximum number of authorities were informed. If
information arrives fast, then decisions can also be taken fast. That
was the second failure; they acted too late. Moreover, the [response
to the public] must be transmitted by a senior official in the
government. Mariano Rajoy, Deputy Prime Minister of Spain, did not
place himself at the head of the crisis team until 10 days later. The
fourth failure was that they lost too much time looking for guilty
parties, which slowed down the decision-making. Finally, in situations
like this, you have to communicate all the steps you are taking. This
confers credibility, focuses the attention of public opinion, and
emphasizes those areas where things are working out well.�



The Spanish government probably lost the most credibility with the
first messages that it sent out. “It committed a very human error, for
a short period of time, in trying to cover up the problem,� says
Garralda. At the end of November, when the first black tide had
splattered the coasts of Galicia, the government refused to talk about
black tide until the public accused it of underestimating the problem.
“Mariano Rajoy was saying that he could not use that term [‘black
tide’] at the same time that he was watching petroleum invade the
beaches on television,� recalls Cobelo.



“Ordinarily, when Federico Trillo, Spain’s defense minister, uses the
phrase, ‘the Galician beaches are magnificent,’ it might be considered
a mere anecdotal detail,� adds Cobelo. “But under these circumstances,
using that phrase was a huge mistake. Perhaps Trillo meant it in a way
that was low key, but the phrase was immediately misinterpreted in the
communication process, depriving the executive of credibility.�



Adding to the executive branch’s apparent lack of concern was the
disappearance of Manuel Fraga, who was in charge of the Galician
government, which makes up a branch of the same political party as the
central government. During the first week of the conflict, Fraga
didn’t get to the beaches; he wasn’t even in Galicia. The
communications media said that he had gone hunting, which made people
angry. Afterwards, the Galician politician said that he had been in
Madrid, meeting with his top person in charge of the environment. True
or false, the public didn’t believe these explanations.



One area where the government acted decisively was the economic
assistance it provided for people damaged by the crisis. During the
second week of the conflict, considered a crucial time, the government
allocated 42 million euros for the catastrophe and approved the first
assistance for the victims. During this same period, Fraga recognized
that the government’s decision to keep its distance from the ship had
not been a correct one.



“In the United States, when you ask forgiveness, people infer that you
are recognizing your responsibility and then you open the door to
denunciations,� suggests Garralda. “In Europe, on the contrary, the
legal system is different, making it easier for companies and
governments to apologize. In the case of the Prestige, people were
waiting for a clear sign that showed the authorities were worried, as
well as the recognition that they had made mistakes.�



Political Opportunity

It wasn’t until December 19 that Prime Minister Aznar acknowledged in
public the government’s errors in managing the catastrophe. Two days
later, he appeared for the first time before Congress. On December 14,
a month after the sinking, he visited Galicia. “The whole world was
surprised that Aznar waited so long before appearing. Only a few
months earlier, German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had won an
electoral victory because of the rapid way he responded to floods that
shook his country,� says Garralda.



At a time when Germany’s electoral campaign was in full swing, the
country was shaken by a powerful storm that set off serious flooding.
From the first moment, Schroeder traveled to the affected areas. He
set up a working group for the crisis that measured the extent of the
damage, and prepared for the necessary assistance programs. This
approach permitted Schroeder to emerge strengthened by the crisis.
Likewise, Rudolf Giuliani, mayor of New York City, knew how to take
command when faced with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.



All these examples demonstrate that, depending on the way managers
take action, an alarming situation can even wind up strengthening the
role of those in command. “In crisis situations, the hard part is
facing up to them. The problem doesn’t lie in the technical part of
communicating but in the psychology of facing up to a crisis when you
are responsible,� emphasizes Cobelo.



“The fact that Aznar did not show up [in Galicia] from the first
moment is a mistake that stems from his long reaction time to the
shock. [At some point,] he had let too much time pass,� Cobelo adds.
However, after the president’s visit to Galicia, the government began
to take a much more active stance. Nevertheless, Aznar was unable to
avoid continuous attacks from the opposition. In addition, he faced
the media-savvy Nunca Mais (literally, “Never More,� or “Never Again,�
in the Galician language), a movement created in order to demand
assistance and prevent similar catastrophes from happening again.



“The reaction time of Nunca Mais was extremely short. Practically from
the beginning, they signed up advertising people to take charge of
designing their flag,� says Cobelo. A black background, traversed by a
blue Galician stripe, embraced the inscription ‘Nunca Mais’ written in
white. This flag was converted into the symbol of the people who, day
after day, flooded the beaches of the north to assist in the clean-up
task.



This tide of volunteers, as well as the actions of Nunca Mais and the
global staying power of the conflict – which reverberated throughout
the worldwide media – marked a new direction for the government. After
Aznar’s visit, as the third black tide was shaking the coast, the
government began to take a more active approach. On December 23, it
promised assistance valued at 230 million euros. Three weeks later, it
calculated the cost of the disaster in billions of euros. And 10 days
after that, it approved an economic recovery plan for Galicia valued
at 25 billion euros.



In this post-traumatic phase, the media began to devote a great deal
of attention to the disaster. This allowed the government to finally
take the initiative and focus its messages on the speed of its
economic response. Then, while the wound of the Prestige was still
open and bleeding petroleum, a frigate called “Nautille� sank in the
extreme south of Spain, off AlmerÃ*a. “In this case, the Government
acted very well. At once, it dispatched a representative who took
charge of the recovery efforts, worked in cooperation with experts and
got close to those who were affected. This gave people a more human
picture [of the government], and showed that they had learned their
lesson,� says Garralda.



Today, three and a half months after the catastrophe, the shellfish
gatherers have returned to the coast to watch each dawn, clad in their
work boots and traditional outfits. The volunteers are still arriving
at the beaches, although their groups are smaller and they are
coordinated by the local government. The army, which at first stayed
outside the conflict, now struggles to lift off the crust of petroleum
that covers the most dangerous cliffs of the Coast of Death.



Gonzalo, one of those thousands of anonymous volunteers, leaves
Galicia with the sad look in his eyes of someone who knows that this
problem remains unresolved. Although the waters have turned blue
again, the depths of the sea retain, in their entrails, the two halves
of the Prestige. Scientists assert that its hull will break in 23
years. Until then, the government has confidence that, using pumping
devices, it can extract the black gold that is still inside.


Publish Date: 3/26/03
back to special section


Enlaces
Stricken oil tanker sinks:bbc.co.uk
The hunt for oil-spill compensation:bbc.co.uk








[Advanced Search]


























buscar | suscripción | sobre nosotros | ayuda | inicio | contactar |
patrocinadores



El copyright de todos los materiales es propiedad de la Wharton School
de la Universidad de Pennsylvania y Universia
PolÃ*tica de Privacidad